Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 17 Apr 2002

Vol. 552 No. 1

Written Answers. - Defence Forces Recruitment.

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

41 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Defence the number of female members of the Defence Forces at each rank; his plans to encourage the increased participation of women in the Defence Forces; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11788/02]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith): The table which I propose to circulate in the Official Report indicates the number of female personnel within the Permanent Defence Force as at 28 February 2002. These figures provide a breakdown between officers and various non-commissioned ranks across each of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps.

In previous years the trend for general service recruitment has been that 10% of all applicants have been female and that on average 10% of enlistments have been female. It is obviously not possible to predict what the relevant percentages will be in any future intakes of recruits, but there is no reason to assume that this pattern will change to any great degree.

Some 19.4% of applicants for the 2001 cadetship competition were female of which 18.3% were successful.

Women are eligible for service in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and in the Reserve Defence Force and to compete for all appointments on an equal basis and under the same general conditions as those which apply to men. All female personnel undergo the same training and receive the same military education as their male counterparts.

To encourage increased participation by women in the Defence Forces I decided in March 1998 to reduce the height requirement for all female recruits to 5 4 and this height requirement now also applies to male recruits.

Strength of Females in the Defence Forces 28 February, 2002.

	LTGen	MajGen	BrigGen	Col	LTCol	COMDT	CAPT	LT	2/LT	TotalOffers	SM	BQMS	CS	CQMS	SGTS	CPLS	TotalNCOS	PTES	Cadets	Total
Army	0	0	0	0	0	13	31	14	9	67	0	0	1	1	12	59	73	236	10	386
Air Corps	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	2	3	15	2	22
Naval Service	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	6	10	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	35	4	50